1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the art of the electrical connectors and, particularly, to an electrical connector having a magnetically-driven movable shutter for protecting an opening in communication to a mating compartment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical electrical connector is configured with some form of insulative or dielectric housing housed/harbored with a plurality of conductive terminals for contacting the terminals of a complementary connecting device or mating connector. For instance, a male or plug connector may be provided for mating with a female or receptacle connector to establish electrical transmission through the mated connected assembly. The receptacle connector has an opening for receiving the plug connector. In some instance, a movable shutter is used to close the opening of the receptacle connector to protect the interior terminals thereof, such as disclosed and suggested by US Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0167076 (the '076 Publication) submitted by Seung-Jong Seh et al. on Jul. 19, 2007. When the shutter is moved to an open position during mating from its normally closed position, the interior terminals are accessible through the opening. So the receptacle and the plug connector will be electrically connecting with each other.
Typically, the shutter will automatically move back to its closed position upon unmating of the connectors, as by a spring, such as disclosed in the '076 Publication. The electrical connector includes a shell having an internal cavity and a front opening for receiving a mating portion of the complementary connecting device inserted into the cavity. A housing is mounted in at least a rear portion of the shell and has a mating portion extending forwardly into the cavity. A shutter is slidably mounted in the shell and is formed with a passage for receiving the forwardly extending mating portion of the complementary connecting device which is inserted into the cavity through the front opening in the shell, the shutter is slidably pushed rearwardly from a forward position to a rear position whereat the mating portion of the housing passes through the passage in the shutter for engaging the mating portion of the complementary connecting device.
A spring is disposed in the housing and pushes the shutter sliding to the front opening. However, the spring may be easily deformed so that the shutter will not automatically resume to its closed position upon the unmating of the connectors.
Therefore, an improved electrical connector is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the related arts.